More old slides that were transferred to a disk...
These are two of my first four cherryhead red-footed tortoises. They were part of what has been commonly called the 'original shipment' that Blue Ribbon Pet Farm in Miami acquired back in 1984. That first load contained up to 4000 animals (according to former employees at Pet Farm) and they were sold for $40.00 each.
At the time Pet Farmed claimed that although the tortoises were exported from Argentina, they were actually of Paraguayan origin. A few years later though Pet Farm staff who worked with the reptiles admitted that they were actually from Brazil. But since Brazil was completely closed to wildlife exportation at the time PF couldn't say where they really came from without risking confiscation by the feds here in the USA. If your are wondering why they didn't just say that the redfoots came from Argentina, the answer is because they don't occur there--or, at least not in harvestable numbers. So Paraguay became the logical country to tell people where these odd tortoises originated from.
Although PF had brought in a huge number of these tortoises, they would only have a few hundred at a time at their sales facility with the remainder being kept at their 'farm'.
This first photo shows a young female I picked out to keep for myself. She had some really nice red color...
The thing that got most peoples attention though were the strange looking marbled individuals that would be scattered throughout the group. This is another young animal I picked out for myself...
No, these are not great photos. I used to be happy if a photo came out in focus so most pictures I took were of tortoises out in my back yard. Here is a side view of the same marbled juvenile...
Like a lot of very marbled cherryheads, this individual didn't have much color on her head and legs. For some reason this is often the case.
I kept my group of four cherryheads for about two years before I sent them all up to a friend in the Washington D.C. area.
Yes, I know...I should have kept them!
These are two of my first four cherryhead red-footed tortoises. They were part of what has been commonly called the 'original shipment' that Blue Ribbon Pet Farm in Miami acquired back in 1984. That first load contained up to 4000 animals (according to former employees at Pet Farm) and they were sold for $40.00 each.
At the time Pet Farmed claimed that although the tortoises were exported from Argentina, they were actually of Paraguayan origin. A few years later though Pet Farm staff who worked with the reptiles admitted that they were actually from Brazil. But since Brazil was completely closed to wildlife exportation at the time PF couldn't say where they really came from without risking confiscation by the feds here in the USA. If your are wondering why they didn't just say that the redfoots came from Argentina, the answer is because they don't occur there--or, at least not in harvestable numbers. So Paraguay became the logical country to tell people where these odd tortoises originated from.
Although PF had brought in a huge number of these tortoises, they would only have a few hundred at a time at their sales facility with the remainder being kept at their 'farm'.
This first photo shows a young female I picked out to keep for myself. She had some really nice red color...
The thing that got most peoples attention though were the strange looking marbled individuals that would be scattered throughout the group. This is another young animal I picked out for myself...
No, these are not great photos. I used to be happy if a photo came out in focus so most pictures I took were of tortoises out in my back yard. Here is a side view of the same marbled juvenile...
Like a lot of very marbled cherryheads, this individual didn't have much color on her head and legs. For some reason this is often the case.
I kept my group of four cherryheads for about two years before I sent them all up to a friend in the Washington D.C. area.
Yes, I know...I should have kept them!
